The Board Factory

Hi Steemers, I'd like to write about my recent hand at making longboard skateboards at my friend's furniture factory. The idea came to me when I thought I would buy a "logger". A logger is an old school style of skateboard that is much longer than any standard skateboard and has a flat deck without any concavity or kick-tail. I soon discovered that it virtually impossible to find one at to get one shipped was going to cost a small fortune. Then I remembered I had a friend that created beautiful wooden furniture right here in my neighbourhood so we started researching how exactly to make boards.

First thing was the material - after much discussion and back n forth with different wood suppliers we settled on Norwegian Birch Ply. It was expensive but seemed to be the best quality we could find here in Thailand. One sheet of ply was enough to make 3 decks. We designed them using different ideas we found on Pinterest and created a template file that could be programmed in to the CNC machine.

Once the decks were cut out on the CNC we laminated a top veneer on using a selection of 2mm veneers of different wood. We had a choice of Mahogany, Ash, Teak and Oak to use. This was what really gave the boards a beautiful appearance. Then we sprinkled non-slip grit from a marine store - the kind they use on boat decks, and finished the whole thing with a strong epoxy coating.

Then was the underside - we played around with screen printing a logo and even tried etching with a laser etcher. But in the end the best result was a dicut sticker covered once again with epoxy. The epoxy was put on several times so that it was thick enough to completely hide the sticker edges.

Trucks and wheels next. We settled on the well-known Californian brand Revenge for the trucks and wheels as they have a factory in China. China has a trade agreement with Thailand so we were able to import trucks and wheels with no import duty and nowadays we get deliveries by road from China at very reasonable prices.

How do you think peeps? We love the end result!